Sevastopol was the last of three ships in the Petropavlovsk class of
pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the
1890s. Named for the siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War, the
ship was part of the Russian Pacific Fleet at Port Arthur, a Russian
naval base acquired from China in 1898. One of the first ships to use
Harvey nickel-steel armor and Popov radios, she displaced 11,854 long
tons (12,044 t) at full load and was 369 feet (112.5 m) long overall,
and mounted a main battery of four 12-inch (305 mm) guns in two twin
turrets. She was launched on 1 June 1895 and completed in 1899.
Sevastopol saw service in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. Slightly
damaged during a surprise attack on Port Arthur in early February, she
later participated in several attempts to break out from the besieged
port, including the Battle of the Yellow Sea, where she was damaged by
several shells but managed to make it back to port with the remnants of
the Russian Fleet. Immediately after the surrender of Port Arthur,
Sevastopol was scuttled to prevent her capture by the Imperial Japanese
Navy. The remains of the ship still lie outside the entrance to Port
Arthur.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Sevastopol_(1895)>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1861:
The Emancipation Manifesto of Tsar Alexander II was
proclaimed, abolishing serfdom in Imperial Russia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emancipation_reform_of_1861>
1885:
American Telephone & Telegraph (first logo pictured), at one
point the world's largest telephone company, was incorporated in New
York.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_Corporation>
1924:
The Free State of Fiume, a short-lived independent free state
located in the modern city of Rijeka, Croatia, was annexed by the
Kingdom of Italy.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_State_of_Fiume>
1945:
Second World War: The Royal Air Force accidentally bombed the
Bezuidenhout neighbourhood in the Dutch city of The Hague, killing 511
evacuees.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_the_Bezuidenhout>
2009:
The building housing the Historical Archive of the City of
Cologne, one of the the largest communal archives in Europe, collapsed.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Archive_of_the_City_of_Cologne>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
beey:
(informal, rare) Reminiscent of or containing bees.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/beey>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
We prove what we want to prove, and the real difficulty is to
know what we want to prove.
--Émile Chartier
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/%C3%89mile_Chartier>